Workshop 1 - September 2017
International Participants
Celine D'Cruz: Urban Practioner, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights
Celine D'Cruz worked for the rights of pavement and slum dwellers in her native Mumbai from the 1980s through 2007. Her Mumbai-based NGO, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, along with the National Slum Dwellers Federation, works in over 60 Indian cities and towns to build the capacity of urban poor organizations to address issues of urban poverty. In 1996, D'Cruz was one of the founding members of SDI, a movement of the urban poor that has supported thousands in building new housing and sanitation facilities in many cities in Asia and Africa. Since the end of 2015, D'Cruz supports the urban poor networks in Cambodia and other urban poor networks in Asia through the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights. She is temporarily based in China and works out of Beijing.
Jack Makau: Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) - Kenya
Jack Makau is the Director of SDI - Kenya. He was previously research and communications director of Muungano Support Trust and Pajoma Trust, leading NGOs in Kenya that support the urban poor to reclaim their rights and negotiate for improved living conditions, among other issues. Makau is a global expert in slum upgrading, designing planning and policy solutions that prioritize the urban poor and working to ensure the voices of youth are prioritized in African city development. He has worked with the Kenyan federation, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, since its founding, holding roles with Muungano Support Trust and Pamoja Trust. He is an expert in enumerations, slum profiling, and participatory urban planning. Makau is based in Nairobi, Kenya but works with SDI affiliates across the world.
Rose Molokoane: South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP)
Rose Molokoane is is a Global Poverty Fighter from Oukasie, an informal settlement near Pretoria, South Africa where she spent her early years living in a small shack with her family. When she joined a savings group in Oukasie, Molokoane began to see how she could make a difference in the fight for land and housing for herself and countless other urban poor women. Today, Molokoane is a coordinator of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) and on the Management Committee of SDI. A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, she is one of the most internationally recognized grassroots activists involved in land tenure and housing issues. Molokoane has initiated federations of savings schemes throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She was awarded the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor in 2005 for her struggle to bring land and homes to the poor.
Emily Moholo: Community Resident - South Africa
Emily Moholo was born in extreme poverty in Mafikeng, South Africa. After her family relocated to an informal settlement to seek out better opportunities, Moholo's mother joined the Federation to help the family save. Moholo was first resentful and bored, but over time, she saw the value of savings in her family's life. Since that time, Moholo has become a community leader and member of the Slum Dwellers International Management Committee.
Nancy Njoki: Community Resident - Mathare Settlement, Nairobi, Kenya
Nancy Njoki is a resident leader in the Mathare community in Nairobi, Kenya. Njoki is a street vendor and founding member of the Bondeni Food Venders' Association. She is concerned with gender rights and women's health for the urban poor.
John Samuel: National Slum Dwellers Federation of India - Mumbai
John Samuel works intimately with the National Slum Dwellers Federation of India. His work centers around innovative approaches to community-driven data collection in slums and the digitization of this data for use by the entire SDI network. In addition, he has facilitated profiling and mapping trainings across India and Africa.
Charlton Ziervogel: Community Organization Resource Centre (CORC) - South Africa
Charlton Leslie Ziervogel is the Programme Manager for CORC, an NGO supporting communities to drive their own development agendas with an overarching objective of making cities more inclusive. He oversees the work of CORC in supporting FEDUP and the Informal Settlement Network (ISN). Ziervogel works with slum dwellers in South Africa to place themselves at the center of city planning in four major metropolitan areas and eight provinces. He completed his master's degree in sociology at the University of Cape Town. Working in the NGO sector in South Africa over the past decade, Ziervogel has honed his skills, specifically around community engagement and the fostering of a bottom-up approach to urban development.
Jackline Wanyonyi: Finance and Administrative Manager, Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) - Kenya
Jackline Wanyonyi has supported the Kenyan Slum Dwellers federation, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, for more than six years. Wanyonyi's role is to add value by ensuring strong financial systems of internal control, accountability and transparency. Wanyonyi continually builds systems for the Federation, compatible with the financial management systems of various funding institutions and investors. Wanyonyi is also working within the SDI international network to build financial management capacities of other SDI Affiliate Countries, while reporting to the SDI Secretariat - South Africa. On a voluntary basis, Wanyonyi has been a project manager of an informal primary school in Mukuru slums in Nairobi. The aim of the project was to improve the potential of the children through health and education.
Celine D'Cruz worked for the rights of pavement and slum dwellers in her native Mumbai from the 1980s through 2007. Her Mumbai-based NGO, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, along with the National Slum Dwellers Federation, works in over 60 Indian cities and towns to build the capacity of urban poor organizations to address issues of urban poverty. In 1996, D'Cruz was one of the founding members of SDI, a movement of the urban poor that has supported thousands in building new housing and sanitation facilities in many cities in Asia and Africa. Since the end of 2015, D'Cruz supports the urban poor networks in Cambodia and other urban poor networks in Asia through the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights. She is temporarily based in China and works out of Beijing.
Jack Makau: Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) - Kenya
Jack Makau is the Director of SDI - Kenya. He was previously research and communications director of Muungano Support Trust and Pajoma Trust, leading NGOs in Kenya that support the urban poor to reclaim their rights and negotiate for improved living conditions, among other issues. Makau is a global expert in slum upgrading, designing planning and policy solutions that prioritize the urban poor and working to ensure the voices of youth are prioritized in African city development. He has worked with the Kenyan federation, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, since its founding, holding roles with Muungano Support Trust and Pamoja Trust. He is an expert in enumerations, slum profiling, and participatory urban planning. Makau is based in Nairobi, Kenya but works with SDI affiliates across the world.
Rose Molokoane: South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP)
Rose Molokoane is is a Global Poverty Fighter from Oukasie, an informal settlement near Pretoria, South Africa where she spent her early years living in a small shack with her family. When she joined a savings group in Oukasie, Molokoane began to see how she could make a difference in the fight for land and housing for herself and countless other urban poor women. Today, Molokoane is a coordinator of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) and on the Management Committee of SDI. A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, she is one of the most internationally recognized grassroots activists involved in land tenure and housing issues. Molokoane has initiated federations of savings schemes throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She was awarded the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor in 2005 for her struggle to bring land and homes to the poor.
Emily Moholo: Community Resident - South Africa
Emily Moholo was born in extreme poverty in Mafikeng, South Africa. After her family relocated to an informal settlement to seek out better opportunities, Moholo's mother joined the Federation to help the family save. Moholo was first resentful and bored, but over time, she saw the value of savings in her family's life. Since that time, Moholo has become a community leader and member of the Slum Dwellers International Management Committee.
Nancy Njoki: Community Resident - Mathare Settlement, Nairobi, Kenya
Nancy Njoki is a resident leader in the Mathare community in Nairobi, Kenya. Njoki is a street vendor and founding member of the Bondeni Food Venders' Association. She is concerned with gender rights and women's health for the urban poor.
John Samuel: National Slum Dwellers Federation of India - Mumbai
John Samuel works intimately with the National Slum Dwellers Federation of India. His work centers around innovative approaches to community-driven data collection in slums and the digitization of this data for use by the entire SDI network. In addition, he has facilitated profiling and mapping trainings across India and Africa.
Charlton Ziervogel: Community Organization Resource Centre (CORC) - South Africa
Charlton Leslie Ziervogel is the Programme Manager for CORC, an NGO supporting communities to drive their own development agendas with an overarching objective of making cities more inclusive. He oversees the work of CORC in supporting FEDUP and the Informal Settlement Network (ISN). Ziervogel works with slum dwellers in South Africa to place themselves at the center of city planning in four major metropolitan areas and eight provinces. He completed his master's degree in sociology at the University of Cape Town. Working in the NGO sector in South Africa over the past decade, Ziervogel has honed his skills, specifically around community engagement and the fostering of a bottom-up approach to urban development.
Jackline Wanyonyi: Finance and Administrative Manager, Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) - Kenya
Jackline Wanyonyi has supported the Kenyan Slum Dwellers federation, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, for more than six years. Wanyonyi's role is to add value by ensuring strong financial systems of internal control, accountability and transparency. Wanyonyi continually builds systems for the Federation, compatible with the financial management systems of various funding institutions and investors. Wanyonyi is also working within the SDI international network to build financial management capacities of other SDI Affiliate Countries, while reporting to the SDI Secretariat - South Africa. On a voluntary basis, Wanyonyi has been a project manager of an informal primary school in Mukuru slums in Nairobi. The aim of the project was to improve the potential of the children through health and education.
Local Participants
Toody Maher: Pogo Park Executive Director
Toody Maher is an artist, inventor, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and executive director of Pogo Park, a non-profit organization in Richmond, CA that transforms broken, inner-city parks and playgrounds into vibrant play spaces that foster healthy child development and revitalize communities.
Carmen and Toni Lee: Pogo Park community organizers and residents in Richmond, CA
Tonie Lee has been a member of Pogo Park since the beginning and also grew up playing at Elm Playlot. She is now the Park Director and supervises the Pogo Park team. Tonie Lee develops the programming for the park and leads Pogo’s collaborative efforts with community partners. She is excited by the change that the team has been able to make in Richmond and the knowledge and skills that members of the community have gained.
Carmen Lee has been part of the Pogo Park team since the beginning over ten years ago. As a child, she played at Elm Playlot herself and now wears many hats as a part of the staff. Her responsibilities include supporting the design and build of the park, community outreach, park host, and supervising other staff and youth interns. Carmen Lee keeps coming back to the park because the Pogo team is following through on its vision of a park and doing what it set out to do. She loves the kids: their personalities, the way they think, the things they say, and the trust they show in her.
Aman Sebahtu: Community Violence Prevention Program Manager, National Council on Crime and Delinquency
Aman Sebahtu is an attorney, technical assistance provider, trainer, and researcher in the fields of criminal justice reform and violence prevention. He is the Community Violence Prevention Program Manager at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), where he leads the organization’s community violence prevention work and several criminal justice reform projects.
Melvin Cowan: Youth UpRising
Melvin Cowan is the Director of Community Leadership at Youth Uprising, in East Oakland. Cowan is a founding member of several community inspired grassroots initiatives. As a strategic partner with law enforcement leadership, he assesses organizational dynamics within the department and works with stakeholders to develop innovative programs and policies to promote diversity inclusion. He is the Founder of Oakland Votes, which helps to promote Black and Pan African voter engagement and education in Oakland by educational workshops, offering digital tools for online users, and hosting community gatherings to generate awareness and collaboration. He coordinates public forums to inspire civic engagement in an effort to foster safer communities for youth and their families.
Sam Vaugn: City of Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS)
Committed mentor for violence-prone youth in what was once one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the country, Sam Vaughn serves as a Neighborhood Change Agent for Richmond, California's ONS. His experiences being mentored by elders while incarcerated for a decade inspired him to become a community leader and help other young men avoid his fate. Believing that violent youth will make better choices for themselves and their communities when able to visualize a healthier path and given life skills, the ONS fellowship program serves as surrogate family for these young men. Vaugn recently collaborated with the ONS to publish their first children's book, Be A Change Agent For Your Community, a gun violence prevention book.
DeVone Boggan: City of Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS)
DeVone Boggan currently serves as Community Services Director for the City of Richmond. The Community Services Director is responsible for the city’s gun violence intervention and recreation portfolios. Prior to his appointment in September 2014, Boggan served as Neighborhood Safety Director and director of the city’s ONS for seven years.
James Houston: City of Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS)
James Houston started in the Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG) as a participant in one of its first groups. He later became a peer facilitator which kept him connected to the program for several years. After his release from San Quentin State Prison in 2013, Houston started working as the Program Coordinator for the ONS in Richmond, where he continues to work with young men who are active firearm offenders.
Shasa Curl: City of Richmond Administrative Chief
Shasa Curl serves as the Administrative Chief for the City of Richmond, California. She directs the City’s Environmental and Health Initiatives and Special Projects. As Administrative Chief, Curl directs a team in the City Manager's Office that researches and develops public policies and programs to implement City Council policy direction. Recent examples include the launch of the Richmond Promise Scholarship and Richmond Rent Program, adoption of the City’s first Climate Action Plan, and implementation of the nation’s first city-wide Health in all Policies Ordinance and Strategy. In her capacity as Administrative Chief, Curl also facilitates public-private partnerships to increase private investments in the City, such as the recently executed $90 million Environmental and Community Investment Agreement (ECIA), and establish working relationships with developers to increase the City’s housing supply and improve the City’s built environment. Prior to her employment in the City of Richmond, Ms. Curl served as the Strategic Initiatives Director for Green for All, and worked for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, where she managed predevelopment and entitlement activities for downtown development projects.
Gabino Arredondo: City of Richmond Management Analyst
Gabino Arredondo is a Management Analyst for the City of Richmond, CA in the City Manager’s Health Initiatives division. In this role, Arredondo is responsible for supporting the successful implementation of Richmond’s Health in All Policies (HiAP) Strategy and Ordinance. Richmond’s HiAP implementation is a collaborative effort with City staff, institutional partners, community based organizations, and Richmond residents to achieve health equity within the City. In addition to his work in the Health Initiatives division, Arredondo supports the implementation of new public policy initiatives as directed by the Richmond City Council. Recent examples include the launch of the Richmond Rent Program and Richmond Promise Scholarship. Arredondo supports these initiatives in large part through thoughtful planning and execution of inclusive community engagement strategies. Prior to working in the City Manager’s Office, Arredondo assisted with implementation and community engagement efforts surrounding the City’s adoption of the Richmond General Plan 2030 and, more specifically, the Community Health and Wellness Element.
Kimberly Aceves: RYSE Executive Director
For the past 22 years, Kimberly Aceves has been committed to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Aceves served as the Executive Director for Youth Together. Aceves has also been a strong advocate for people of color and youth within the funding community and has served as a community funding panel member of the Women’s Foundation, Horizons Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco Department of Children Youth and Their Families, Astraea Foundation, and the California Mental Health Services Administration.
Dan Reilly: RYSE Director of Media Arts and Innovation
Dan Reilly was born and raised in the Bay Area before attending UC Santa Barbara where he studied film theory and developed a passion for media activism. He has spent the last 10+ years working on a number of music, video, and new media projects related to social justice issues. While engaged in a number of partnerships and collaborations, Reilly's work has spanned a variety of media, from traditional music and video to interactive multi-media art installations in a variety of public and virtual settings. For the last four years, Reilly has been working with young folks at RYSE.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal: RYSE Director of Community Health and Integrative Practice
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently serves as the Community Health Director. Dhaliwal has over 15 years of experience in facilitating and developing cross-sector collaborations and community-driven planning focused on trauma-informed inter-personal, organizational and community-based interventions. Dhaliwal holds an MPH and is an instructor at San Francisco State University.
Joseph Griffin: UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Joseph Griffin leads the research collaboration between community and university researchers for Pogo Park. A native of Richmond, he has been a volunteer with the park since 2008 before moving into this more formal role. He is a doctoral student in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley studying community violence prevention and intervention.
Jason Corburn: Director of UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Jason Corburn is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the School of Public Health. He directs Berkeley's Institute of Urban and Regional Development, and joint Master of City Planning (MCP) and Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program and leads the Center for Global Healthy Cities. His research focuses on the links between environmental health and social justice in cities, notions of expertise in science-based policy making, and the role of local knowledge in addressing environmental and public health problems.
Mahasin Mujahid: Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Head of Epidemiology/Biostatistics Program, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Dr. Mahasin Mujahid's current research examines how features of neighborhood environments impact cardiovascular health and health disparities. Using data from several U.S.-based cardiovascular cohorts, Dr. Mujahid seeks to improve the measurement of specific features of neighborhood physical and social environments and use state-of-the-art statistical methods to estimate "causal" neighborhood health effects. In related research, Dr. Mujahid seeks to understand the multi-level and multi-factorial determinants in the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors (obesity, diabetes, hypertension) in racial/ethnic minorities and the consequences of this clustering on the long-term cardiovascular health of these groups.
Marisa Ruiz Asari: Project Manager, UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Marisa Asari helps manage a range of research projects related to urban planning and public health in Nairobi, Kenya; Medellin, Colombia; and the Bay Area, California. Ansari holds a B.A. in Public Health from UC Berkeley.
Amanda Fukutome: Administrative Officer, UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Amanda Fukutome was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Anthropology and American Studies. Responsible for the logistical and operational management at IURD, she is interested in pursuing graduate school in the near future. If you need assistance, she is easily found in 316 Wurster Hall, during normal business hours, Monday through Friday.
Toody Maher is an artist, inventor, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and executive director of Pogo Park, a non-profit organization in Richmond, CA that transforms broken, inner-city parks and playgrounds into vibrant play spaces that foster healthy child development and revitalize communities.
Carmen and Toni Lee: Pogo Park community organizers and residents in Richmond, CA
Tonie Lee has been a member of Pogo Park since the beginning and also grew up playing at Elm Playlot. She is now the Park Director and supervises the Pogo Park team. Tonie Lee develops the programming for the park and leads Pogo’s collaborative efforts with community partners. She is excited by the change that the team has been able to make in Richmond and the knowledge and skills that members of the community have gained.
Carmen Lee has been part of the Pogo Park team since the beginning over ten years ago. As a child, she played at Elm Playlot herself and now wears many hats as a part of the staff. Her responsibilities include supporting the design and build of the park, community outreach, park host, and supervising other staff and youth interns. Carmen Lee keeps coming back to the park because the Pogo team is following through on its vision of a park and doing what it set out to do. She loves the kids: their personalities, the way they think, the things they say, and the trust they show in her.
Aman Sebahtu: Community Violence Prevention Program Manager, National Council on Crime and Delinquency
Aman Sebahtu is an attorney, technical assistance provider, trainer, and researcher in the fields of criminal justice reform and violence prevention. He is the Community Violence Prevention Program Manager at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), where he leads the organization’s community violence prevention work and several criminal justice reform projects.
Melvin Cowan: Youth UpRising
Melvin Cowan is the Director of Community Leadership at Youth Uprising, in East Oakland. Cowan is a founding member of several community inspired grassroots initiatives. As a strategic partner with law enforcement leadership, he assesses organizational dynamics within the department and works with stakeholders to develop innovative programs and policies to promote diversity inclusion. He is the Founder of Oakland Votes, which helps to promote Black and Pan African voter engagement and education in Oakland by educational workshops, offering digital tools for online users, and hosting community gatherings to generate awareness and collaboration. He coordinates public forums to inspire civic engagement in an effort to foster safer communities for youth and their families.
Sam Vaugn: City of Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS)
Committed mentor for violence-prone youth in what was once one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the country, Sam Vaughn serves as a Neighborhood Change Agent for Richmond, California's ONS. His experiences being mentored by elders while incarcerated for a decade inspired him to become a community leader and help other young men avoid his fate. Believing that violent youth will make better choices for themselves and their communities when able to visualize a healthier path and given life skills, the ONS fellowship program serves as surrogate family for these young men. Vaugn recently collaborated with the ONS to publish their first children's book, Be A Change Agent For Your Community, a gun violence prevention book.
DeVone Boggan: City of Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS)
DeVone Boggan currently serves as Community Services Director for the City of Richmond. The Community Services Director is responsible for the city’s gun violence intervention and recreation portfolios. Prior to his appointment in September 2014, Boggan served as Neighborhood Safety Director and director of the city’s ONS for seven years.
James Houston: City of Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS)
James Houston started in the Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG) as a participant in one of its first groups. He later became a peer facilitator which kept him connected to the program for several years. After his release from San Quentin State Prison in 2013, Houston started working as the Program Coordinator for the ONS in Richmond, where he continues to work with young men who are active firearm offenders.
Shasa Curl: City of Richmond Administrative Chief
Shasa Curl serves as the Administrative Chief for the City of Richmond, California. She directs the City’s Environmental and Health Initiatives and Special Projects. As Administrative Chief, Curl directs a team in the City Manager's Office that researches and develops public policies and programs to implement City Council policy direction. Recent examples include the launch of the Richmond Promise Scholarship and Richmond Rent Program, adoption of the City’s first Climate Action Plan, and implementation of the nation’s first city-wide Health in all Policies Ordinance and Strategy. In her capacity as Administrative Chief, Curl also facilitates public-private partnerships to increase private investments in the City, such as the recently executed $90 million Environmental and Community Investment Agreement (ECIA), and establish working relationships with developers to increase the City’s housing supply and improve the City’s built environment. Prior to her employment in the City of Richmond, Ms. Curl served as the Strategic Initiatives Director for Green for All, and worked for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, where she managed predevelopment and entitlement activities for downtown development projects.
Gabino Arredondo: City of Richmond Management Analyst
Gabino Arredondo is a Management Analyst for the City of Richmond, CA in the City Manager’s Health Initiatives division. In this role, Arredondo is responsible for supporting the successful implementation of Richmond’s Health in All Policies (HiAP) Strategy and Ordinance. Richmond’s HiAP implementation is a collaborative effort with City staff, institutional partners, community based organizations, and Richmond residents to achieve health equity within the City. In addition to his work in the Health Initiatives division, Arredondo supports the implementation of new public policy initiatives as directed by the Richmond City Council. Recent examples include the launch of the Richmond Rent Program and Richmond Promise Scholarship. Arredondo supports these initiatives in large part through thoughtful planning and execution of inclusive community engagement strategies. Prior to working in the City Manager’s Office, Arredondo assisted with implementation and community engagement efforts surrounding the City’s adoption of the Richmond General Plan 2030 and, more specifically, the Community Health and Wellness Element.
Kimberly Aceves: RYSE Executive Director
For the past 22 years, Kimberly Aceves has been committed to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Aceves served as the Executive Director for Youth Together. Aceves has also been a strong advocate for people of color and youth within the funding community and has served as a community funding panel member of the Women’s Foundation, Horizons Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco Department of Children Youth and Their Families, Astraea Foundation, and the California Mental Health Services Administration.
Dan Reilly: RYSE Director of Media Arts and Innovation
Dan Reilly was born and raised in the Bay Area before attending UC Santa Barbara where he studied film theory and developed a passion for media activism. He has spent the last 10+ years working on a number of music, video, and new media projects related to social justice issues. While engaged in a number of partnerships and collaborations, Reilly's work has spanned a variety of media, from traditional music and video to interactive multi-media art installations in a variety of public and virtual settings. For the last four years, Reilly has been working with young folks at RYSE.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal: RYSE Director of Community Health and Integrative Practice
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently serves as the Community Health Director. Dhaliwal has over 15 years of experience in facilitating and developing cross-sector collaborations and community-driven planning focused on trauma-informed inter-personal, organizational and community-based interventions. Dhaliwal holds an MPH and is an instructor at San Francisco State University.
Joseph Griffin: UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Joseph Griffin leads the research collaboration between community and university researchers for Pogo Park. A native of Richmond, he has been a volunteer with the park since 2008 before moving into this more formal role. He is a doctoral student in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley studying community violence prevention and intervention.
Jason Corburn: Director of UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Jason Corburn is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the School of Public Health. He directs Berkeley's Institute of Urban and Regional Development, and joint Master of City Planning (MCP) and Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program and leads the Center for Global Healthy Cities. His research focuses on the links between environmental health and social justice in cities, notions of expertise in science-based policy making, and the role of local knowledge in addressing environmental and public health problems.
Mahasin Mujahid: Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Head of Epidemiology/Biostatistics Program, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Dr. Mahasin Mujahid's current research examines how features of neighborhood environments impact cardiovascular health and health disparities. Using data from several U.S.-based cardiovascular cohorts, Dr. Mujahid seeks to improve the measurement of specific features of neighborhood physical and social environments and use state-of-the-art statistical methods to estimate "causal" neighborhood health effects. In related research, Dr. Mujahid seeks to understand the multi-level and multi-factorial determinants in the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors (obesity, diabetes, hypertension) in racial/ethnic minorities and the consequences of this clustering on the long-term cardiovascular health of these groups.
Marisa Ruiz Asari: Project Manager, UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Marisa Asari helps manage a range of research projects related to urban planning and public health in Nairobi, Kenya; Medellin, Colombia; and the Bay Area, California. Ansari holds a B.A. in Public Health from UC Berkeley.
Amanda Fukutome: Administrative Officer, UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development
Amanda Fukutome was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Anthropology and American Studies. Responsible for the logistical and operational management at IURD, she is interested in pursuing graduate school in the near future. If you need assistance, she is easily found in 316 Wurster Hall, during normal business hours, Monday through Friday.